Madhya Pradesh: Shortage Of Faculty Major Challenge For NEP, Says UGC Chairman

Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): “Shortage of 25-30 per cent of faculty members in central universities, IITs and IIMs coupled with shortage of 60-80 per cent of faculty members in state universities is a major challenge for implementation and outcome of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020,” University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman Prof M Jagadesh Kumar said here on Friday. “We are writing to all the state governments to focus on filling up the vacant posts as fast as possible because if we want to become a globally leading country in technology and scientific innovations we need good faculty members,” he added.

Addressing a press conference at the Shalaka Hall of Vikram University on the sidelines of the central zone vice-chancellors’ conference on “Implementation of NEP”, Prof Kumar said, "We equally want good faculties and their proper training for the effective implementation of NEP and its outcome. There are about 15 lakh teachers in the present education system and we have introduced ‘Malviya Mission Training Programme’ to impart them required training. As many as 111 centers have been formed across the country in which free of cost online training of two weeks is being given to them. All those who will get training this way will also be eligible for the career advancement scheme or in their promotions, he said. 

Responding to a question as to whether the NEP will be able to abolish the much-criticised education policy of Lord Macaulay, the UGC chairman said that the Indian educational eco-system was constrained by this ‘colonial’ mindset, but thrust is now being given on Indian languages, inclusion of Indian Knowledge System in curriculum and making students creative and innovative are the main aims of the NEP. There were so many rigidities in the previous education system, but our system did not encourage the students to study commerce with physics, through the NEP-2020 there will be no disciplinary restrictions for the students and they will rather get ample opportunities. Presently, India is the third largest eco-system in start-ups in the world which means our students were in a position to take risks and to make it successful we are trying to implement the NEP, he added. 

Prof Kumar also said that the Union government in its interim budget has allotted Rs 1.2 lakh crore for the school education which is an increase of 6.34 per cent allotment as compared to the previous financial year. Likewise, an allocation of Rs 47,600 crore has been made for higher education which indicates an increase of 7.4 per cent allotment. A provision of a corpus fund of Rs 1 lakh crore has been made and accordingly interest-free loans can be granted for 50 years to boost up the research eco-system and also to enable fast implementation of the NEP. Soon our universities will get a place in the top 100 universities of the globe, he claimed adding that continuous review of implementation of the NEP at various levels has given good results.